letting your hair down.

DAY FOUR
This morning I finally realized why our room is so bright in the morning... you actually have to shut the outside blinds rather than hold the inside shut using measuring cups.  Rookie mistake?  Oh well, I know tomorrow morning will be nice and dark!  Danielle and I headed out of the apartment before nine this morning and ordered a cappuccino and una cornetta from il Bar from the little place across the street.  It was a change of pace from our usual market run just to relax in the morning, attempting to blend in with the locals and other Palazzi students.  We were just packing up when my "small world friend," Tim arrived and asked us if we wanted to join him at the Palazzo Pitti museum, which was bought by the Medici family in 1549.

Of course feeling like royalty as we walked into the palace for free, we scaled the three story mansion through great room after great room of paintings, gilded cabinets, and intricate roof paintings and sculptures.  The museum also featured an interesting collection of costumes, dating back from as early as the sixteenth century all the way to the twentieth century.  Recurring as well as unique styles were displayed, including dresses with shoulder pads the size of small bambini (children) and ones adorned with what looked like pieces of spaghetti shooting out from a flower(?).  And as Meryl Streep would say in the Devil Wears Prada, "you don't have any style or sense of fashion."  And that is NOT a question!  All I can say is I am glad that styles have moved beyond the eighties and nineties... Next we visited the Giardino di Boboli behind the palace to view a fountain.  The palace was enormous and was truly a sight to see, especially from the back where it had a more dynamic sense of style rather than the flat front facade.

After the museum, I quickly made my way back to the Squola for my Italian class at noon.  Alas, more review... hopefully the teacher will realize the different levels of the students within the class, and will react accordingly because the pace was quite slow today with all the already forgotten material.  Anyway, the wine class today was so more more relaxed than the two days prior because our teacher, Livia, finally let her hair down, literally.  On Tuesday and Wednesday her hair was in a tight bun, and today it was all down!  She was smiling and laughing along with Carrie, Paige, and me.  So... I guess she figuratively let her hair down as well!  I am glad we finally got under her skin because it definitely made the class run, as Livia would say, "more smooter."

After class our weekend officially began, and me and Carrie were ready for some apertivo (a system where you buy a drink and you get a buffet meal for that same price) at this hip restaurant called Kitsch.  Emily, Carrie, and I headed in that direction around 7:30 (I think 7:39 would have been better but...), and got lost along the way.  Of course it started raining right after we left and I didn't have my umbrella with me...  luckily we were easily amused by the pigeons eating crumbs of bread and Carrie chasing them off.  We call her the pigeon whisperer... she just has a way of speaking to them that makes them fly off.

Kitsch was an interesting ambiance of bright colors and strange drinks in all different forms and consistencies.  Per homework of Livia, Carrie and I ordered a glass of wine to test the olfactory and gustatory sensations along with guestimating the vintage.  We felt like pros as we swirled our glasses and inspected them incessantly from stem to rim.  The food was also good!  The buffet, of course consisted of many different starch options, but was very varied.  I finally got more first serving a vegetables since I have been in Italy.  I feel like they just don't eat fruits and veggies all that often here?  Anyway, after dinner we went in the search for the gelato place that EVERYONE keeps talking about.  And when I say everyone, I mean everyone.  It is called Grom, it is one block from il Duomo, and it was perfect.  It was so smooth and rich, and had the most delicious flavor.  I may not be that good at figuring out wines, but I sure do know my gelato.  I got Bacio (chocolate with hazelnuts of course) and caffe and we all walked past the unworldly Duomo for the first time during the night.  I am pretty sure every photo of someone in front of il Duomo looks photoshopped. I was talking with one of my roommates and I think what we decided is that it almost appears as if it could be a blow up impersonation of il Duomo like the fake Pyramids in the movie, Despicable Me.  Anyone?  Well... if not, just look at that picture of all of us with our gelatos.  It just looks so unreal!

When I got back to the apartment, we decided tonight was the night we finally go out for an evening in Firenze.  We rolled up (oddly) to an English pub and hung out there as the placed got more and more mobbed with American study abroad students.  We just can't seem to escape them!  It was fun though just chatting with everyone and meeting new people.  After the pub, we went into a club that was so interesting.  It was dark (per usual) and had blue lights streaming from every direction.  To me, the place resembled a cave with the low ceilings, arched pathways, and random twists and turns.  I am a novice when it comes to clubbing... so at this point, it is my turn to let my hair down.  It wound up being a lot of fun!  We took a few pictures, danced a little, and just hung out.  One of my favorite parts of the night was when we imitated the Roman statues in the club.  It was a different environment, but made everything so much more interesting.  It was a worth it experience.

Best snap of the night!

Now the next part I am not really allowed to say, but "I only repeat gossip once, so listen carefully," we heard a rumor about this "Secret Bakery" that sells one euro croissants after 1:30 am.  They don't tell you where it is, only that you have to sniff it out.  As we walked around the corner of the club, all the sudden the smell of baked goods engulfed us.  It was like the smell was a brick wall blocking our way.  Okay okay... so I know that bread shops and bakeries bake their goods early in the morning so they have enough by morning for their work goers, but the "Secret Bakery" is the ONLY bakery I smelled.  It was almost as if they had "bakery scent" Febreeze and casually sprayed it throughout the random alleys, leading you to the bakery's back door.  Allora, our noses (which again, at least for me, works 100% better with baked goods than it does for wine) stopped us dead in our tracks when we smelled the bakery and we literally followed the scent of warm chocolate and bread to this average looking frosted sliding door with graffiti on it.  We knocked and a man opened the door and we got chocolate pudding filled croissants.  They were AMAZING!  It was one of the most random and kind of sketchy things that has happened, but it was worth it because they were so good!  I will tell you one more key thing... when you get to the door you have to be absolutely silent or they won't give you any baked goods, but don't let that happen because you WILL want that croissant.

After we were full, the guys that are with us on the study abroad trip invited us to check out their apartment, which is awesome and so nice compared to ours.  But who's comparing anyway?  So, we walked around in awe until we saw that they had two clothes drying racks in the corner.  That was two more than we had and so far we had been throwing our clothes over everything and anything, such as the radiator or a wardrobe door.  So Tarah and I went into action mode and grabbed the extra one and raced out of there saying, "Ciao, grazie" over and over again until we made it outside and back to our apartment across the street.  We went up the stairs and opened the door and guess what we saw?  Just guess.  Of course on the night we FINALLY get a drying rack, our other roommate finds two drying racks hiding behind the couch.  "What is life?"  We thought we were the night's heroes by stealing the rack, but the whole situation ended up being very anticlimactic.  But the whole night was so much fun that I will let that one slide, and it was still pretty funny.

Well, off to sleep.  Buongiorno!